it's judgment day for georgia's ruling party challenged by a popularity slump and a united opposition as voters have their say in parliamentary elections. a legal ditch and switch closely rinds appeal against their jail term is a journey time to one of the punk band members turn turn away or. at hundreds of people stage demos at a us military band saw me japanese island of okinawa as washington again pops up it doesn't have the same thing.

thank you for joining r.t. this monday it's four o'clock here in moscow i'm karen taraji well georgia's ruling party and the united oppositional lines are going head to head as the nation votes for its next parliament president saakashvili is parties desperate to hold onto its majority in the chamber after its popularity plummeted in the wake of the prisoner abuse scandal artie's alex said a short skis in the georgian capital. voting continues into what promises to be a crucial election for georgia and its mordant a history of this election will show whether the people are happy with the current political regime with prison saakashvili and his united national movement body but you know when more wider picture the party which wins this election will be able to then appoint a prime minister and when the constitutional amendments take place next year when real estate is down which will allow other prime minister to have just about the same policies as the president had then this party would be. to appoint the prime

minister and basically have the georgia's future in its hands fourteen parties are running in this election but the main battle will be between the united national movement party the ruling party of the president saakashvili and the party georgian dream run by a tycoon whose fortune makes up almost half of the country's national budget mr even is silly according to all the surveys the ruling party is in the slight lead with about forty percent but the party georgian dream still has a very good chance of winning this election especially with a very turbulent twist of events in the recent months in georgia with a video of prison torture being released and this caused a huge public outcry in the country with thousands taking to the streets to protest in fact on saturday we saw nearly the largest political rally in the history of modern day georgia with over one hundred thousand people in the streets basically voicing their discontent against the current political regime now i haven't been in georgia for the last five years but as soon as i arrived i've seen how the country is change the say for instance the road from airports are much better but if you go

sideways from in on any smaller road in central city you can still see the old soviet low quality roads basically the same applies to economy with the country being labeled as one of the leading growing economies in the world but still over a third of the population is living below the poverty line but what really concerns many in georgia and many in the opposition is that legations that the country is gradually turning into a police state now many have been accusing the current president of cracking down freedoms of speech and basically suppressing all kinds of opposition on television the judicial system is being pretty much under the thumb of the current president of the current ruling party his former allies many politicians who are now in opposition have been describing him as a totalitarian ruler and they are he they are in the opposition to oust the present saakashvili and to change the system this is something mr vanished really the leader of the georgian green party is destined to do. as we said in politics and

georgia so with all the better roads economic prosperity many believe that this still a facade for a very to tell a tarion rule and my colleague we've got this going off found out what georgian image is really like now at the moment. right here bill deeks banks grass ron said a western style face with in general is definitely something georgian authorities can be proud of glass was in police stations and many other new government buildings aimed at creating an image welcome we transferred state system but is it merely an image. recent footage of alleged torture and sexual abuse of inmates in prisons has shocked the georgian public many are comparing it to cases from guantanamo except it contains suspected terrorists and these are ordinary georgian inmates. moreover the former senior staff member of one of the prisons who leaked the footage claims president saakashvili is perfectly aware of the torture.

thousands took to the streets in protest demanding the arrest and prosecution of all those responsible while a burning broom has become a symbol of the opposition since this is what the authorities are accused of using for torture in some of the videos i mean this will not be tolerated opposition activists dutchy is a good idea claims over six hundred people have been tortured in prisons and nationwide many died he says are to know our goal is to make sure the election is without provocations and the people who committed these crimes are punished especially mikhail saakashvili duchy was arrested by traffic police the day after we met officially for resisting orders he was given ten days in prison meanwhile to save face president saakashvili was busy sacking the police chief arresting all the officers shown in the video footage and substituting the staff in all prisons with police but both his and the ruling parties readings still dropped when you. twenty

percent. urge portion of the government supporters used to come from civil servants now many of them are resigning in a crossing over to the opposition. the average salary or room four hundred u.s. dollars per month globally is another issue sparking public disapproved it in shiny new buildings that. change is going to happen first the question is how did georgians want them to go to school all of these. cranes highest court has rejected appeals by nine medics who are who were handed prison terms for their alleged role in the pro-democracy uprising the original case drew criticism from the un and outrage from international rights groups with many calling the verdict politically motivated the medics treated demonstrators wounded in clashes with police crackdown on his followers last year a military court earlier found the defendants guilty of attempting to overthrow the government one of the medics will serve five years and the rest between

a month and three years behind bars the ongoing protests in bahrain have seen dozens killed in clashes with police as demonstrators continue to call for democratic reform and the resignation of the unelected prime minister. get more on the ongoing protests in bahrain at r.t. dot com or you can read up on the background of this story its case of the child maddux. also online the pope's former butler will tarnish the reputation of the vatican the king private letters awaits his fate he's accused of violating the do not steal commandment. a suicide attack on a joint afghan nato foot patrol in eastern afghanistan has killed at least fourteen people and injured dozens taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the blast a man on a motorcycle packed with explosives ran into the security patrol in the city of course the one hundred thousands. coalition forces are going to pull out of the

country two thousand and fourteen political analyst aka mad quire ice she thinks the ongoing violence and afghanistan is surprising given the years of foreign presence and flawed policy there. it's quite obvious that the united states military is leaving behind a new our faction or a new militia in afghanistan in addition to the dozens that already exist and i'm referring to the of gun national army at least parts of that are well trained by the us military and this national army is now turning against its benefactors its mentors of gun national army is is one of the blunders of the u.s. military in afghanistan in addition to. the midst of created in that country over the past decade three thousand american citizens died on nine eleven the u.s. military blunders resulted in an additional two thousand americans dying in a plane is done over the past decade and these are the american soldiers in afghanistan this mess basically belongs purely to the u.s.

military to pentagon to the cia because of the understand has been their baby. an appeal by the russian punk band pussy riot against their present time has been adjourned after one of the group members told the court she had fired her lawyer they were tailed for two years in august for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred after they staged an infamous and type stunt rashness bank the trial thomas has the details court has wrapped up for the day and this is coming after you got that you know some would say of it's the oldest of the three women requested a new lawyer and the court has granted that request which means she needs time to prepare the appropriate documents in the papers in order to let this specific hearing go through a new court date has been set for that hearing that is october tenth now again today many people here to see inside the courtroom it was packed in fact it spilled out into the corridors of the courtroom so that people could watch on television to

see what was happening inside the courtroom outside the courthouse itself and many more people both pro and against suppose he rioted coming to let their voices be heard showing that this case specifically still has weighed in it still resonates inside russia a little bit about the details on february twenty first pussy riot performed what they called a punk prayer at christ the savior cathedral in central moscow they were arrested in march a trial during the summer and then in mid august they were sentenced to two years and this is part of the appeals process today which has now been delayed until october tenth well certainly this incident has sparked a lot of international attention support for the group of media frenzy as well as calls for leniency for the group major artists like bjork at madonna and the red hot chili peppers have called for the government to be lenient as well as other western governments have said that they need to find a punishment that is more fitting to the crime of what they say is more fitting to the crime now prime minister medvedev has said that he doesn't see any reason for

this group to spend any more time in jail that the time that they have served is already punishment enough for the crime president putin has said the. he is completely staying out of this he does not want to interfere at all there's also been many copycat incidents around russia as well as in other countries as well in ukraine one woman took a chainsaw to a crucifix and destroyed it in a cologne germany in a cathedral there three people got up in the middle of the service and had a protest there they were arrested their trial starts this week as well in russia this country is very divided about the subject as seen here today this country is a very religious country and many people were offended by what happened in the country's main church still plenty hot for you in the program including the u.s. deployment of six hundred planes to a base on japanese island of okinawa which is meant by fierce protests from local residents. plus the russian prime minister a famous friend on facebook but you didn't have to go online to sell as many from

our business desk now explain why we're talking about the head of facebook monks aka buddy is in moscow he's going to meet in person with the prime minister and heads of his cabinet and he's also going to the high tech center of skolkovo and some speculate this is to some of the brightest programmers over to work for facebook but we'll have more on that in the round. a sacred place rising out of the waters of the lake the lawn ministry is home to one hundred fifty orthodox monks mostly younger than thirty five and they've come from many different places and backgrounds to live in isolation here spiritual life it takes up many hours on the road to becoming

a monk requires both hard work and religious tele cation. salem's to become and herds cattle as part of this preparation. however these beasts get a musical company. they can remember sound sequences you know they react to the sound signals the flutes the herders had in the old days they needed them it wasn't just a fun thing but these meadows didn't come naturally requiring decades of composting to bring the soil up to farming standard this island is mostly rock. the soil here is very thin and the monks can't just get more of it because they're surrounded by the lake so they have to work very hard in order to provide whatever food they need. they grow their own crops on their own fish and repair their own churches. but the central purpose of the land has always been religious the main ministry surrounded by smaller priories spread through the many archipelago the

monks here know their existence is a little different from that of of them on the streets here we are out of the way and we do have. bill creams and sometimes tourists as well but only. tranquility is this hardly. the. condemnation of high religion and down to earth hard work to motivates these men. welcome back to our team coming live from moscow karen terror well the u.s.

has deployed six all spring hybrid planes to its base on japan southern island of okinawa with six more aircraft due to be transferred there japanese police have to had to forcibly remove hundreds of people who had gathered outside the american base to protest the deployment of the jets demonstrator say the aircraft safety record is not up to standard following a series of crashes in the parents they were also calling for the marine base which is in a densely populated area to be shot down piece campaigner on human rights activists try and also says their calls are unlikely to be met. these bases cause a lot of problems not only for safety but noise issues and a lot of conflicts with the servicemen themselves in the local areas but the u.s. isn't going to budge in that position they've been dragging their feet now for six years so i think it's highly unlikely bases will close and nobody wants any of the bases there but for them to be bringing these in the twenty two osprey from boeing

is very dangerous a crash just recently is june in florida that could fall on someone's head that's not an exaggeration as these seeing their hybrid helicopter airplane and they haven't got the bugs out of them yet they always say they're building up a presence because of north korea and maybe part of that is true but i think a lot of it's about and certainly in china as well it's like world war two never ended and there's still bases in germany as well there are unnecessary the residents don't want them but this is u.s. geopolitics they are never somewhere temporarily once the u.s. comes somewhere with one exception of saudi arabia and they put a base they never ever leave time now to check on some other news from around the world that the gunfire followed by several explosions has been reported on the outskirts of damascus government with rebels meanwhile the fighting continues at the country's border with turkey where at least twelve people have been killed this

comes a day after syrian state t.v. claimed government forces have carried out a successful operation in the country's commercial. euro zone unemployment has had a record high of eleven point four percent that's according to the new statistics agency that means over eighteen million people are effectively out of work but the number of jobless young cause of alarm for european governments meanwhile protests against raging unemployment and growing spending cuts continue throughout europe with frustration turning to violent clashes with police it's. ten buddhist temples and forty homes have been torched by muslims in bangladesh with dozens injured in the us it happened after a photo of a burnt koran appeared on a teenager's facebook page authorities have pledged to bring the situation under control the boy says the photo appeared on his account by mistake his parents happen arrested and an investigation launched well the issue of religious conflict

and freedom of speech is also a hot topic at r.t. dot com where we're asking for your opinions in our web poll and right now all of the majority say that nothing should stand for free speech a quarter of you thinks there should be a compromise between religion and freedom of expression fourteen percent believe that the country's culture is what matters and i'm in the minority saying that religious beliefs are sacrosanct archie dot com is where you can go to cast your. plans for a new justice and security bill in the u.k. has sparked criticism that the country could expand its system of secret courts it's claimed the move could help the government indulge allegations of complex city and in the abuse of detainees are brought parties last month looks into how westminster is trying to take political advantage of the proposed legislation. nipping charges of complicity in the budget that's what the u.k.

government admits it's trying to do with its plans to secret courts ministers have all more secret courts the need is to protect said. of information and the workings of security agencies but in documents seen by the guardian newspaper the government acknowledges it would benefit politically able to defend itself from allegations like complicity and torture without the details ever becoming public there have been a number of cases where the government has the government's lawyers have tried to shut down court hearings and have things heard in private and it has transpired true that your dish will price says that what they were really trying to cover out was a lot of government embarrassment about wrongdoing our main would be media agencies that these proposals if they're passed will sweep away hundreds of years of the british legal tradition the proposals follow a law suit brought by binyam mohamed who was held in guantanamo and all the british

government was complicit in his rendition and torture mohammed won the case to the d.p. million and of the government and now they're trying to change the law so the government often a party in these matters would decide if a case should be heard in secret it wouldn't just be kept from the public if the proposals go ahead neither the defendant nor the defendants legal team would be able to hear the evidence against them human rights lawyers are concerned it would trample on the principle of a fair trial in effect a large chunk and presumably a very important chunk of the case that you're trying to your client you're going to be. there we're going to behind closed doors closed sessions you are not. so if there is an inherent on furnace there is a huge scope for. future miscarriages of justice evidence m i five and m i six knew that britons were being tortured in guantanamo m i six helping to deliver

libyan dissidents into the hands of gadaffi secret police critics say that's the kind of information the bill is. designed to suppress so many beg he was held and he alleges tortured in five grams and guantanamo has a special interest in making sure there are no more secrets theory i remember the discussions that were taking place at the time it was very odd former guantanamo prisoners on one side sixteen of us and a whole bunch of government officials on the other side having a discussion negotiating a settlement we would have been able to do that basically we would have been able to certainly try to take the government to court but we would have to do it with our hands tied behind their back even the government admits that black and asian muslim men will be disproportionately affected as it's they who are most often involved in cases where sensitive information is being considered and still the bill rolls on the plans for so-called secret justice are proven so deeply

controversial that they've been delayed but like a bad penny they keep turning up and every time they do it gives human rights groups another opportunity to weigh against proposed legislation they say goes against one of the founding principles of the british legal system not only that justice is done but that it seemed to be done laura smith r.t. london to major joins us now from the first hour or so it seems the head of facebook is in moscow that's right mark zuckerberg is indeed in moscow we've already seen footage of him walking around red square and walking into a mcdonald's restaurant where not everyone recognized him first but today was also meeting with government officials so let's now join our correspondent. to find out what is the real reason behind mark zuckerberg arrival in moscow. well a good question to me there are few names better known in the world of social media

and technology than mark zuckerberg and he is today indeed in the russian capital he's meeting with prime minister dmitri medvedev. supposed to be going to the moscow state university to talk to students and you might spend some time behind me at a grouping of programmers called digital october's facebook is not in fact the number one social network in russia it's another social network called the contact which means in contact and in russian and he may well be here i'm sure part of the reason for his visit is to try and boost facebook's p.r. in russia and its market share but there has been another idea floated by the russian media quoting russian computer companies who say that he may well in fact be here to try and headhunt talented russians programmers and they're not happy about that prospect they point to the one nine hundred ninety eight when russia was in a financial crisis and microsoft received similar accusations of poaching talented

russian programmers and taking them back to the us whatever the real reason that he was here he still managed to find time to pose for photos in red square in his trademark red hoodie and to go into mcdonald's for a bite to eat so it seems that although the main message is technology it's not all about business. all right thank you so much for that was our correspondent tom barton speculating on the reasons behind the head of facebook's arrival here in moscow well we can always find out of course tonight he will be taking part in a comedy show on russian t.v. will have to wait for that later all right let's move over to the financial markets let's start with europe where a major deal has been basically confirmed by extracts a it's has basically accepted terms of a merger from glencore trading company which also holds ten percent and russia's

roof souses is a huge deal mulling of wealth around fifty billion dollars and we're seeing the markets. reacting forces to the. focus now on spain's basic anomic health is indeed a concern as debt levels will increase further next year despite the state efforts to cut spending the nation's debt is expected to reach eighty five percent of g.d.p. this year ninety one percent in two thousand and thirteen now that's three times from the levels of two thousand and eight x. per se it's just a matter of time before spain asked for a bailout now this believe it's only a matter of time. indeed before that happens let's move over to other markets and in the currencies we're seeing the euro losing some of that value against the u.s. though all new speculations on this pressure mounting up on spain to go ahead and get rid of its debt pressure well that's not really happening in the russian ruble

is weakening against. and on the russian stock markets we are seeing go to my sixty priest by around one percent now some of the most interesting stocks were his burbank which he is talking about that positions in turkey and gazprom assigned a twenty year looks by natural gas delivery contract to india. and that's what we have for you this hour barbie back around fifty five in a sign with an object tara thanks for the update and. shortly here in our tease interview we ask why some critics are saying israeli democracy is a contradiction in terms. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm charged welcome to the big picture.

there are those who desperately need it to survive i am misspoken is the time give money to look i'll choose the old gold when the fish out of the suppresses the prize the rights of the good for. those who don't judge their share of the cage. good by god's. grace and you know don't last but not the one not us that people need to know about it i mean not look at it from the company from. those who suck it out to prosper. inside the seeds. from you not from. some.

nice licensing. no one can live without it's in one of the largest blood banks in the world. blood of nigeria. on our t.v. . wealthy british style. passed on to. the. markets why not scandals. find out what's really. happening to the global economy cars report on r.g.p. my parents really truly honestly believe that what had happened was as a result of my father's exposure to agent orange i was born with multiple problems . i was missing my leg and my fingers and my big toe on

my right foot i use my hands a lot in my artwork i find myself drawing my hands quite a bit to me. for my hands you know just as anyone would but they do tell a story they tell a story of. their oxen. sigrid laboratory to mccurry was able to build the needs most sophisticated radar which on rigidly doesn't give a dog.